University Boulevard sees some crowds on Black Friday

Though big box department stores experienced most of the Black Friday rush, University Boulevard’s Urban Outfitters and Finally Made also saw lines out their doors at 6 a.m.

Other local stores on University Boulevard, like Swindlers and Collette, also saw more customer traffic than usual Friday morning. Swindlers’ owner, Christine Henneke, said there wasn’t a line outside her store, but she took advantage of the shoppers heading to Urban Outfitters.

“Urban Outfitters is across the street, so I feel like a lot of people know about that,” Henneke said. “That’s really the only reason I did it, is because I knew people would be out there for that.”

Because most sales were from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., traffic slowed down after 10 a.m. and picked up again before the football game against Arizona State University at Arizona Stadium. Tom Cassidy, co-owner of Ooo! Outside of Ordinary, said having a big football game later in the day helped his sales.

“[We get] tourists and parents of kids from the school, people visiting the university, people visiting Tucson,” Cassidy said. “Those people are more apt to come to the street because they’re here at the hotel … and there’s a lot of people today from Phoenix down here who are coming for the football game.”

Sales included 70 percent off of clothes at Finally Made and Swindlers, and a $10 rack with accessories, purses, clothes and hats at Collette.

Despite the deals, Haley Booth, an elementary education junior and her sister, Carly Booth, said they had hoped to find better deals in the University Boulevard shops.

“We found stuff but paid a little bit more than I was wanting to,” Carly Booth said.

The Booths said they didn’t find Christmas gifts while shopping, but were mostly looking to shop for themselves. Haley Booth said they expected most people to go shopping at the mall, so they went to University Boulevard specifically for Urban Outfitters.

“We went here kind of thinking there wouldn’t be as many people,” Haley Booth said. “I wasn’t really expecting many deals out here.”

Opening doors early the day after Thanksgiving had different results for various store owners.
Henneke said that despite the increase in customers, selling mostly discounted items doesn’t add up to too much profit. Prince Ampong, owner of Finally Made, had a different Black Friday experience, saying he made in one day what he usually makes in two weeks.

“We’ve had a lot more people come in today because of the game,” Ampong said. “The shop would be nothing if we weren’t close to the U of A.”

The only returning starter from the basketball team’s back-to-back Elite Eight squads has a chance to be the winningest basketball player in Wildcat history and a chance to lead the Wildcats to the Final Four to cap off his senior year.